Posted on 04/28/2010 3:28:09 PM PDT by seanmerc
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama needs to wake up to the fact that the nation’s school systems are going down the drain.
Thousands of teachers are facing a payless summer. Millions of school children are looking at a drop in educational standards and bigger classes.
We are depriving students of their right to a decent education.
Granted that school systems are under state control, the federal government needs to step up and help them overcome their financial woes.
Aren’t the schools too important to fail?
U.S. priorities are to spend billions every week for the unjustified and unexplained wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the maintenance of hundreds of U.S. military bases around the world. At the same time, we neglect the nation’s schools when teachers affect eternity. It’s a national disgrace.
As Lyndon B. Johnson, a former school teacher, used to say: “Education is the passport to a better life.”
Obama had a great education and presumably knows its worth. But what are our national priorities? What does it matter if we win the whole world militarily but lose our learning?
Obama promised change. But change from his predecessor’s policies and priorities required a giant leap, and he has not made it.
It takes great courage to turn a country around. The president has to be reminded that he has dug us into a Vietnam-style quagmire in Afghanistan. Nine years of killing and dying in Afghanistan are enough. The Russians were in Afghanistan for 10 years before departing. It took courage for them to leave.
It’s too bad Obama does not have knowledge of the Vietnam era. If he had, he would never have committed American troops to widen the war in Afghanistan.
Too many civilians are caught in the crossfire in Afghanistan between allied forces, the Taliban and al-Qaida.
Recently, four young Iraqis returning from a soccer game were killed, mistaken as “insurgents,” meaning the enemy. I’m sure that “regrets” were sent to the families for the “mistake.” Who is to blame? Normally when you invade and occupy a country, YOU are the enemy!
Unprovoked, preemptive war was the hallmark of former President George W. Bush, who yearned to be known as a “war president.”
Real “war presidents” like Dwight D. Eisenhower -- the hero of World War II -- knew better. When Eisenhower arranged a cease fire with North Korea and pulled most U.S. forces out of Korea after winning the presidency in 1952, there was a huge sense of relief in the country.
How many Americans and Koreans are still alive today because of that move?
Yes, breaking up is hard to do.
As for Vietnam, after widespread protests against the 15-year-long war and with North Vietnamese armies poised to overrun Saigon, President Gerald R. Ford withdrew the last U.S. forces. We’re friends now with Vietnam, with an amazing lack of bitterness on the Vietnamese side. American presidents should learn that winning the hearts and minds of people who have been occupied by U.S. forces is asking a lot.
The president and Congress need to stop spending the nation’s treasure on war while simultaneously neglecting children, our most important assets.
The Washington Post reported last week that “from coast to coast, public schools face the threat of thousands of layoffs this year in a fiscal crunch and fewer programs to help students in need.”
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has proposed a $23 billion federal bailout to help states avert teacher layoffs. This is a pittance compared to the cost of enforcing U.S. foreign policy around the world.
After all, our magnificent Department of Public Education (DOPE) is on the job...
The faltering schools have been run by liberals for decades...it’s the incompetence of liberals that have condemned more than a generation.
Helen... We could use more money to fund education if it weren’t for the fact that the federal government has already taken it away from us to fund Obamacare, cash for clunkers, and the GM bailout.
When did it become a right?
Give us more money or your kids will be stupid!!
And what would that be?
Isnt ther a movie by that name. Mo money, Mo Money
It’s the democrat scream every couple of years, Mo money for schools.
The scores go down and still they scream Mo money.
I saw her on Varney & Co. the other day. She is a major loon. For all the times she has seen government fail miserably at everything it does, she still calls for even more government. She’s crazier than an outhouse rat.
Good God no matter how one steels oneself, this harridan is so brutally and God awful UGLY!!!
Somebody said that if she had any brothers and sisters, they must be pretty good-looking because she soaked up all the ugly in that family.
OMG The humanity
I wonder if Helen Thomas ever hit on Ronald Reagan Hollywood friends LOL!
A++
Faltering U.S. Schools Are National Disgrace....
...thanks to liberal mindsets, methods and agenda.
Oh, Hellen, come to California and see what decades of a Democrat-controlled legislature have wrought.
I asked several juniors in the high school I work at who Thomas Jefferson was; none of them knew. In two years, they’ll be voters.
And, Hellen dear, they don’t read newspapers either!
Oh, good grief. I was actually reading the article...
Hey Helen, how bout the Federal. government gets the hell out of education PERIOD. Let each state handle their own and that puts and end to the Federal government indoctrination of the kids. Soon we will have 2-3 generations of good little commie kids.
“In the late 50’s my classes at a Catholic school had 50+ kids in them..and just one nun. We behaved..and learned.”
Yes, and that Nun was a great believer in Teddy Roosevelt...she spoke softly and carried a big ruler.
Huh, that reminds me of some managers I’ve had in the past...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.